WC celebrates alumni at annual luncheon
Weatherford College recognized Bruce Wiggs as its 2026 Alumnus of the Year and Distinguished Alumni Award honorees Robert Williams and Sierra Emerson at the annual Alumni Awards Luncheon held Friday, March 27, in the Emerging Technologies and Workforce Building.
Wiggs, whose connection to Weatherford College spans more than seven decades, reflected on the role the college played in shaping his life and career. He recalled the late Vernon Parrott, who served as both college president and his Sunday school teacher, and who helped him find work painting the gym and picking peaches so he could afford to stay in school.
“Weatherford, Texas, is a good place,” Wiggs said. “Any time a community has a college, it is a better town, and Weatherford has the most outstanding one in the state.”
A 1955 WC graduate, Wiggs went on to become the youngest bank president in Texas at age 29 and spent decades leading and turning around troubled financial institutions across Texas and Louisiana.
He and his wife, Laura, have supported WC through multiple endowments and scholarship gifts. Their family’s philanthropic legacy at the college includes a $1 million gift from his son and daughter-in-law, Brett and Alesia Wiggs, to support the Alesia Armstrong Wiggs School of Nursing.
Williams, a 1971 WC graduate, shared the story of a winding path that started with a fun, but academically challenging freshman year at the Colorado School of Mines, to Fort Wolters and Weatherford College, two tours of duty in Vietnam as an Army helicopter pilot, and eventually to a distinguished career as an engineering test pilot with Bell Helicopter.
He credited WC instructors with helping him believe he could succeed academically after years away from the classroom.
“Everything that I compiled in my career came from a good education and good people who believed in me,” Williams said. “Weatherford College played a very pivotal role. Without the support of Weatherford College, I would never have had nearly as much fun or as interesting a career.”
Williams closed with a call to action for those in attendance, urging them to invest in the next generation the way others had invested in him.
“I ask you to stop and look for those 17-year-olds coming behind us,” he said. “They need guidance, encouragement and someone to believe in them, just like I did.”
Emerson, who earned her cosmetology certification at WC in 2011 while also competing on the college’s rodeo team, spoke emotionally about the instructors and coaches who shaped her during her time on campus.
“Weatherford College gave me the space to do both,” Emerson said, referring to her dual pursuits of cosmetology and rodeo. “It was here that I learned how to be an adult, how to manage my time, how to balance priorities and how to be a team player.”
Now a 15-time award-winning stylist and entrepreneur based in the Marble Falls area, Emerson has built an online platform and mentorship program, the Hairpreneur course, to help other beauty professionals build six-figure careers. She also established a WC Foundation scholarship for cosmetology students who participate in rodeo.
“I am deeply grateful that Weatherford College recognizes trades,” she said. “Not everyone is called to a four-year university, but that does not diminish your value. Skilled trades build economies. They build communities. And they build freedom.
“For me, cosmetology was never a backup plan. It was the plan. It gave me the financial foundation and flexibility to build a life that I love.”